According to FCNN, the National Iranian Oil Company believes that Babak Zanjani owes the company 2.6 billion euros, but Judge Salavati, in the ruling issued, sentenced the first defendant in the oil case to pay 1 billion, 967 million and 500 thousand euros to the oil company.
In an interview with Tasnim News Agency, Rasoul Koohpayehzadeh responded to the question of how much the court announced in its ruling to return Zanjani's property to the oil company, saying: "Anyone, whether the client or the oil company, can have a claim, but the court's verdict is the evidence, even if it is not final."
Defense attorney Babak Zanjani added: "In the ruling that Judge Salavati issued for the client, the amount of debt was specified and the client was sentenced to pay 1 billion 967 million 500 thousand euros. Therefore, the oil company can claim that its debt is 10 billion and we can also claim that we have no debt, but the criterion is the court ruling."
Koohpayehzadeh continued: "The value of my client's domestic assets was announced by the deputy prosecutor at the court session as 2,600 billion Tomans, which shows with a simple calculation that these assets cover 30 percent of the client's debt, but the oil company's lawyer inaccurately said that if the assets were sold, they would not even cover one-sixth of the debt."
Babak Zanjani's defense lawyer also said regarding the pursuit of the shares of Owner Air Company, which were sold by "Qudrat Tenjal", the trustee of Zanjani's assets: "With the recent power of attorney that my client gave to the oil company on April 8, the pursuit of friends was carried out more quickly. Unfortunately, the oil company's lawyer recently made a statement that contradicted the truth and said that the oil company, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hiring foreign lawyers, is trying to collect its claim from Zanjani, while Zanjani himself gave the power of attorney so that the oil company could file a lawsuit in Turkish courts; unfortunately, it has been insinuated that Zanjani did not cooperate and the oil company directly intervened."
Regarding the latest status of his client's debt settlement through money transfer to the account number announced by the Central Bank, Koohpayehzadeh said: "We used to say that the cycle of lifting sanctions is moving slowly and that banks are working with us cautiously, but friends said that you are making excuses. Now Mr. Seif himself is saying that we have not gained anything from the lifting of sanctions, and all private sector activists who have no political affiliation and the banks themselves are saying that we have not been able to transfer money yet and the debts that others had to the oil company have not yet been collected."
He added: "The problems we had in this regard still remain, and the client's last action was to announce his readiness to deposit funds into a foreign bank account, but the bank's Euro broker prevented him from receiving the funds. Overall, there is really no general space for bank transactions, and this is an undeniable fact."
